Tara Grubb's Web Log helped make her politics local for me I have enjoyed very much watching this story develop. I had some nice email exchanges with Tara and she has offered to share more about what she has found as it relates to the use of her web log and the role of social capital played in her campaign.
Tara Grubb Earns Ink
The News & Record ran its campaign preview article this morning on the Howard Coble-Tara Grubb race (article not yet posted online). Grubb was given equal space in the article, and her views were presented seriously.
Tara Grubb's weblog was discussed high in the story, which was headlined "Grubb's 'hits' don't faze Coble." The lede: "If Internet page views were votes, US Rep. Howard Coble might be quaking in his loafers." The top of the article dwells on Grubb's "innovative use of the Web." Grubb's opposition to the P2P bill is discussed, as is Coble's concern for copyright protection.
There is no doubt that the publicity Tara has received for and through her weblog caused the dominant regional daily to give this neophyte Libertarian equal billing in an article about her race with a nine-term GOP incumbent. Otherwise, we would have gotten an article about Coble being pretty much unopposed.
This point can't be emphasized enough: Grubb's weblog is the reason she got all that ink today. Certainly some of the attention to the weblog was driven by her status as the first congressional candidate with a campaign blog, not just by the content of the weblog itself, but the fact is that for whatever combination of reasons, Tara Grubb's weblog has paid off big as a political tool.
The article, by the capable N&R reporter Taft Wireback, notes that Grubb's weblog has been the subject of news coverage across the country, but does not explain why the News & Record has not reported on it until today. [EdCone.com]
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